My Weblog

Here's...

Banjo.

 

He's made from vintage hand-dyed woollen blanket and new fabrics, and he's about 11"(28cm) high, from ear to toe.

He has a button on one paw, and a loop on the other,

( look, isn't he a clever boy , he's learning to sit up on his own) .

Whoops !

Loop the loop around the button, and he can hold his own hands,

or loop it around one of the buttons on his babygrow - and he can cuddle Marvin, his little teddy,

or snuggle his blankie,

or because he's a nice, helpful little boy, he will even carry his own travel quilt.

What a sweetie.

He comes with some shrinky-dink charms,

An embroidered tag

and a little carrycot to sleep in.

Because he's so young, he will require lots of love, attention and cuddles.

I couldn't decide what to price him at - didn't want to under-price him, didn't want to over-price him, blah blah blah blah BLAH BLEUGH !

I've spent way too much time fretting over it in the last few days, so he's up for sale on e-bay.

The children are on half-term holiday next week, and we've decided rather than the poor things being at home with me for a week, we are going to go and make my sister's life hell.

I'll be away until thurs, with no access to my e-mail, so if you're missing me and you want to talk  ; )  leave me a comment here, and I'll get back to you.

Have a lovely week everybody. Mwahhhh.

Peek

A sneaky peek at someone who's going up for sale next week.

Baby Banjo.

If we can bear to part with him, that is.

Thank you so much to everyone that takes the time to leave me a comment, I love reading them and I wish I could answer each and every one. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough 'me' hours in the day.

So once again, THANK YOU !

Woollyness

Dyeing woolly blankets.

You will need a 100% wool blanket, and one (or more- see below) tins of Dylon multi purpose dye *

Tear the blanket into manageable sized pieces - I normally tear it into eighths.

Dunking two** pieces of the blanket at a time, I follow the basic manufacturers instructions here (click on the link for multi-purpose dye).  However, although I mix the dye up and add to a large pot of water as written, I then veer away from any exact instructions.

The amount of water that goes into my big old pot varies, and I usually forget how long the blanket has been simmering away, so it ends up cooking for longer than specified .This doesn't matter though, wool is only supposed to get 10 mins dunking on a gentle simmer to avoid any shrinking, but we want the wool to felt as much as possible, so leave it for longer, say half an hour (ish).

When done, remove from the pan , allow to cool, and rinse as instructed.

Look at the state of my poor wooden worktop. I am a bad woman.

Do not throw away the dye bath as instructed - that would be a waste, but use it for dyeing your next two pieces. You will get a paler colour, which is what makes it fun - you don't how it's going to look until it'd done.

You can repeat this process, using the whole blanket, depending how pale you want to go. Just top up the dye pot with boiling water if neccesary.

You can also add further dyes to your dye pot for interesting results. In this case, for the first two dips I used Dylon 'Coffee' and then threw some Dylon Black into the pot, to get some lovely black/ greys,

Bottom up ( as the actress said to the Bishop)

Ist dipping with black

Two further dunkings to produce some lovely greys

Ist dip with Coffee

2nd Coffee dip.

At the top is some creamy white blanket which I left undyed.

All ready to be made into teddies, kittens, puppies and elephants etc.

* I use Dylon as it's pretty much all we get over here, but I'm sure this method can be used with other hot/cold hand dyes as long as you follow the manufacturers mixing/rinsing out instructions.

** If you want more of the first colour, you can put 4 or possibly more pieces in at a time, try it.

Have fun. Do let me know if you give it a go , I'd love to see what colours you achieve.

Update... Please read Karen's comment below, re colourfastness. I have hand washed some of my woolly fabrics, with a very mild detergent, and had no problems. But Dylon do state that colourfastness isn't guaranteed with the all purpose dye, and to wash separately. Thanks for pointing that out Karen. : )

Happy Mother's Day !

To all you SUPERMAMAS that celebrate it on Sunday.

I hope you have a lovely relaxing day, with big boxes of chocolates, and pretty flowers, and breakfast in bed.

And not too much mess to clear up after the latter.

Rag bag

Crocheted bag made from half inch strips of leftover fabrics.

Useful for holding my pieces of dyed woollen blanket.

I'll post a tutorial next week, on how easy it is to make your own hand dyed, woollen, felt-type, fabric.

See Hilary's lovely knitted rag ball apron, Rosa's beautiful bag and pattern ( found via Rosa) here.

Silk Painting

Oilily inspired

 

Hanging up to dry

Embellished elephants.

Some beautiful images and hints and tips here

More loveliness here here  here and here.